Production
Saab’s Definitive Product Development Schedule
April 3rd, 2008, 11:43pm by Ryan - 2 Comments
Saab’s current product development schedule has been an interesting issue. As of late, it sounds like Saab owners and enthusiasts across the board do not have faith that the aforementioned products such as the Saab 9-4x, Saab 9-X BioHybrid and new 9-5 will be brought to market sooner than at least 15 months from now, and that’s a long time from now with many factors that must be taken into consideration.
These factors, include the ongoing inflation, escalating fuel prices, and the United States economic position getting close to reaching six consecutive months of economic decline leading into a recession by definition. So here’s the question, what is the definitive time table for Saab’s current product development for the Saab 9-4x BioPower Concept, the 9-X BioHYbrid and the 9-5? These products cannot come any sooner for Saab, so here’s hoping that they arrive well before 15-18 months from now. I hope that some definitive information can be forthcoming sooner than later.
What is also interesting is that Autoblog has recently reported one week after India’s TATA corporation officially bought Land Rover from Ford, that their new LRX concept car that was showcased at the New York Auto Show, will be going directly to market by 2012. That sounds quite efficient to me in terms of a product decision like that a week after acquisition. What’s more is that this concept car that you can see at the aforementioned link, is ready to go as-is.
While this is interesting in terms of efficiency, I find it even more interesting in terms of design of this vehicle, where it has a sloping roof, wrap-around windshield, ice-block like tail lamps, and some other design cues us Saab enthusiasts have come to know and appreciate. This vehicle shockingly looks similiar to both the Saab 9-4x BioPower Concept as well as the Saab 9-X BioHybrid.
With Saab Automobile’s product availability schedule in question, how many more companies like Land Rover for instance, will move ahead and begin to start borrowing Saab’s ideas and go to market with those “borrowed ideas” before Saab?
I hope that in the immediate future, we can begin to get more definitive dates for product availability from Saab because as it is now, times are changing fast. I hope Saab’s turbocharged thinking can bring us the products consumer’s need in a timely fashion, before the competition does.
Categories: 2000-2009
2 Comments
[...] Saab History added an interesting post today (Saab’s Definitive Product Development Schedule).Here’s a little bit of it: Saab’s current product development schedule has been an interesting issue. As of late, it sounds like Saab owners and enthusiasts across the board do not have faith that the aforementioned products such as the Saab 9-4x, Saab 9-X BioHybrid and new 9-5 will be brought to market sooner than at least 15 months from now, and that’s a long time from now with many factors that must be taken into consideration. These factors, include the ongoing inflation, escalating fuel prices, and the United State [...]
Let’s hope that Saab moves forward with all of the new exciting products. They need to improve the dealer premium service. You can see it going down hill. Saab Cadi. Hummer, that’s not going to work. Pulling the loaner cars, not going to work. Does Saab realize the BMW is slowly taking whatever customer base Saab has left. Especially with the new !-Series. MAKE CORRECTIONS NOW SAAB BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
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